Crisis Ministries hires auditor to check records

An independent auditor is examining financial records at Crisis Ministries after the downtown Charleston homeless shelter reported that a former employee siphoned off more than $11,000 over the last year.

The ministry has engaged Dixon Hughes to see if anything else is missing, spokeswoman Elizabeth Boineau said Tuesday. The employee worked at the ministry for 10 years.

“They (the auditors) will go back as far as they feel the need to go, based on what they’ve dug up so far,” Boineau said. “I expect they’ll go back a couple or more years.”

The former employee is accused of depositing at least 10 checks intended for institutions that work with the ministry into a personal account since last June.

The employee was suspended without pay Monday pending the outcome of the investigation.